New club 420 Speakeasy opens, sales tax revenue spikes and more

CannaBiz

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Travis Perkins knows exactly why he recently moved from Indiana to Colorado: "to be part of the movement!" The 24-year-old is the new owner of 420 Speakeasy (1532 N. Circle Drive, 471-3398), a 3-week-old cannabis social club with an old-school feel.

"Moving out here ... I went to a lot of smoke clubs around town; I liked them a lot. I just wanted to do one specifically for the community, make it very nice, very clean, very safe," Perkins says. "And really try to point this game in a very professional, very clean direction so we can take over the masses and don't get beat out by [big companies like] Pepsi and Coke."

To that end, Perkins says to expect "a very suit-and-tie kind of place," which is exactly what male employees wear, while women rock a flapper look. Additionally, pool tables, dart boards and a dance floor and deejay booth join chandeliers, shiny marble floors and seating. On one side, there's a small shatter-wax bar for the dab-inclined.

"All of our wax, our oils, is member-made, member-donated, and actually smoked by members on a member premises," Perkins says. "And that's how we keep it legal."

An advertisement on the club's Facebook page refers to a group within the club called the Oil Inn — a "private growers concentrate league" — promising a monthly competition in which homemade wax is judged 3.5 grams at a time. Naturally, the first event comes April 20.

Meanwhile, membership starts at $50 per month, with additional levels available at added cost. Perkins says he has more than 100 members already, with the venue often filling to capacity — so much so that, this week, the company will tear down a wall and expand into the space next door.

"And we are right next to Baskin-Robbins," the owner says, "so it's a win-win in the stoner world."

Keef crumbs

• January brought a bonanza from Colorado's marijuana industry, which generated $8.8 million in sales-tax revenue for the state. The Associated Press reports that $2.3 million came from an excise tax dedicated to funding school construction, a more than 10-fold increase from January of last year, when it brought in $195,000.

The money comes at an interesting time for the legislature, however, as it has yet to maneuver around a TABOR law that says the state must either refund marijuana monies collected or ask voters if it can keep them.

• Quote of the week, from the Brookings Institution's John Hudak regarding the glut of lawsuits filed against Colorado recently: "This is the last hurrah for a lot of individuals in the anti-marijuana community," Hudak told The Washington Post. "It's pretty clear that they've lost the battle for public opinion."